Gilgo Beach Suspect Rex Heuermann Charged With Fourth Murder Count

Brainard-Barnes, 25, was discovered dead along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach on Long Island three years later. She “had been left restrained by 3 leather belts, one of which was utilized to tie Barnes’ feet/ankle/legs together,” revealed the legal filing.

One of those belts was branded with “WH.” It was later revealed that Heuermann had a grandfather named William.

A female hair was found on one of the belts, and a DNA profile was done linking the suspect to her murder through his estranged wife, Asa Ellerup.

“The DNA profile generated from the Female Hair on Barnes, which was recovered from a belt buckle utilized to restrain Ms. Brainard-Barnes’ remains, is 7.9 trillion times more likely to have come from a person genetically identical to Asa Ellerup’s SNP Genotype File than from an unrelated individual,” the documents read.

Brainard-Barnes was a sex worker from Norwich. She was last seen on July 9, 2007, heading to Manhattan with plans to return the next day, revealed her closest friends, who noted she was always on her cell phone. She was never seen or heard from again.

Heuermann was also charged with the murders of sex workers Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, and Megan Waterman.

According to the docs, “all had contact shortly before their disappearances with a person using a ‘burner’ cellphone (i.e., cellphones without an associated verified identity), and the cellphones of two of the four victims Brainard-Barnes and Barthelemy, were used by the killer after their deaths.

“In addition, each of the four victims were found similarly positioned, bound in a similar fashion by either belts or tape, with three of the victims found wrapped in a burlap-type material.”

Heuermann sat in the courtroom quietly as his lawyer argued he denied committing the crimes. He had already pled not guilty to Barthelemy, Waterman, and Costello’s killings.